e his promise again, but was not satisfied.

The next day Roderick was walking in the valley and met one of the
farmers, a young good-humoured man, who had always been friendly with
the boy, and had often been to fish with him; Roderick walked beside
him, and told him that he had followed the stream nearly to the pool,
when the young farmer, with some seriousness, asked him how near he
had been to the water. Roderick was surprised at the same question
that his father had asked him being asked again, and told him that he
had but seen it from a hill-top near, adding, "But what is amiss with
the place, for my father and mother have made me promise not to go
there again?"

The young farmer said nothing for a moment, but seemed to reflect;
then he said that there were stories about the place, stories that
perhaps it was foolish to believe, but he went on to say that it was
better to be on the safe side in all things, and that the place had an
evil fame. Then Roderick with childish eagerness asked him what the
stories were; and little by little the farmer told him. He said that
something dwelt near or in the pool, it was not known what, that had
an enmity to the life of man; that twice since he was a boy a strange
thing had happened there; a young shepherd had come by his death at
the pool, and was found lying in the water, strangely battered; that,
he said, was long before Roderick was born; then he added, "You
remember old Richard the shepherd?" "What!" said Roderick, "the old
strange man that used to go about muttering to himself, that the boys
threw stones at?" "Yes," said the farmer, "the very same. Well, he was
not always so--I remember him a strong and cheerful man; but once when
the sheep had got lost in the hills, he would go to the pool because
he thought he heard them calling there, though we prayed him not to
go. He came back, indeed, bringing no sheep, but an altered and broken
man, as he was thenceforth and as you knew him; he had seen something
by the pool, he could not say what, and had had a sore strife to get
away." "But what sort of a thing is this?" said Roderick. "Is it a
beast or a man, or what?"

"Neither," said the farmer very gravely. "You have heard them read in
the church of the evil spirits who dwelt with men, and entered their
bodies, and it was sore work even for the Lord Christ to cast them
forth; I think it is one of these who has wandered thither; they say
he goes not far from the pool, for